Planning a Surprise
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: Tao's planning something.


**Summary**: Tao's planning something.

Set post-series.

Thanks to Key to helped me with characterisation. :)

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><p><strong>Planning a Surprise<br>**

By Dark Ice Dragon

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><p>There was a knock on Frankenstein's office door; he set his pen down, looking up. "Come in," he called out. He didn't have any meetings for this time… He checked his diary and hadn't noted anything down. Hm.<p>

Tao poked his head in, looking around as if he was making sure they were the only ones in the room.

Frankenstein raised his eyebrows; that wasn't how Tao usually acted. "We're alone," he assured him. The windows were closed against the rain and no-one had come to his office for several hours now.

"Good." Tao shut the door and came closer, his eyebrows drawn in thought, his lips pursed. "Boss, I've got a couple questions for you."

"Oh…?"

xOx

M-21 looked around the living room, frowning. "Where's Tao?" He hadn't seen him since…dinner? Tao tended to wander in and out of the kitchen on his breaks while he was working on something.

"He left an hour and twenty minutes ago," Seira said, not lifting her head away from her homework.

"He…left," M-21 repeated. Tao didn't tend to leave the house unless it involved the school; if he needed to buy something, he added it to the shopping list or ordered it online. On the occasions he _did_ leave the house, he dragged M-21 or Takeo along with him.

"He does seem busier than usual as well," Takeo added.

"So he's planning something," M-21 said with a sigh. Great. Now they had to find out what it was and stop him before he finished it.

The front door opened and Tao walked in, whistling. He grinned when he saw he had M-21's and Takeo's attention. "Yo! What ya up to?"

"What are you doing?" M-21 asked, looking him over. He didn't seem to have bought anything – he wasn't carrying any bags and his pockets didn't seem bigger than usual.

"Me?" Tao's hands flew to his chest to indicate himself. "Nothing! I went out for a walk."

"Just a walk?" Takeo asked.

"Yup! Anyway," he said, going towards the stairs, "I've got work to do, so I'll see you in the morning."

M-21 watched him leave and then glanced at Rai. Rai sipped his tea, but M-21 was sure he could see a small smile on his face. That either meant there was nothing to worry about or something they _definitely_ had to worry about.

Hm… They would have to wait for the moment.

xOx

The week passed, Tao starting to take walks after school before returning home. Other than that, everything seemed normal and things settled back to normal.

_Bzz_.

Tao pulled his phone out while he, M-21 and Takeo were patrolling around the school grounds just after lunch. M-21 didn't bother to read what was on his screen, waiting for Tao to tell him if it was something important.

"Haa." Tao sighed, looking at the other two. "Something's up with the security – I'll see ya when I'm done."

They nodded, continuing on with their patrol as he jogged away.

Twenty minutes later, they both got a text: [Sorry, this is more messed up than I thought – I'll probably be here for a couple hours. ;_; Don't wait up~!]

It had been a while since something had happened to Tao's security systems and M-21 winced in sympathy. [All right. We'll see you at home.] Tao tended to lose more sleep than usual when that happened while he worked to get everything back in order.

[Yup~!]

xOx

A few hours later, M-21 and Takeo were shoo'd away from work by Frankenstein before their usual clock-out time.

"Should we visit Tao?" Takeo asked M-21 as they left Frankenstein's office.

"Ah," Frankenstein said, and when M-21 looked over his shoulder, Frankenstein was shaking his head. "He's really busy right now, so it wouldn't be good to disturb him."

Damn. He had a good point, but Tao tended to not eat or drink while he was working in front of the computer at school.

"I'll make sure he eats," Frankenstein said, his voice wry, and M-21 nodded. If Frankenstein said he would do something, it would be done.

Frankenstein picked up his pen, turning his attention back to the pile of papers in front of him. "I'll see you at home."

"Yeah."

xOx

The rest of the household were gathered at the gates when M-21 and Takeo reached them.

"The children didn't want to go to the PC bang today?" M-21 asked as they started to talk home.

Rai shook his head and Regis huffed. "They forgot about the maths homework due tomorrow so they're completing that tonight."

It meant the night would be quiet, at least.

The walk was uneventful, the five of them talking about what had happened during the day. When they got home, M-21 frowned, lifting his head to sniff the air.

"Food…?" Someone had been cooking, but everyone was accounted for. Who broke into someone's house (how did someone break into _their house_?) and cooked food?

"Those are Tao's," Takeo said, looking down. Those were definitely Tao's shoes on the rack, his slippers gone as well.

So this was what he'd been planning.

…How was food involved?

Sharing a look with the others (Rai was smiling again, and damn, what had Tao done?), M-21 braced himself and walked into the living room, the others following him.

"Surprise!" Tao was at the entrance, throwing confetti up into the air. "And don't worry," he said before M-21 could object to the mess, "Boss knows about the party. And the confetti. I'll clean it up afterwards."

There was a mixture of food spread out over the table and M-21 eyed the streamers draped over the pictures, the huge banner sprawling from one corner of the room to another proclaiming, 'HAPPY ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSERY!'

"Hmph," Regis said. "Cleaning up isn't your job."

Tao waggled his eyebrows. "Yeah, but I'm the one who made the mess."

"We don't ask the children to clean up after themselves," Takeo said.

Tao pulled himself up to full height. "Did you just call me a _child_?" he protested in mock outrage.

M-21 patted Tao on the shoulder, knowing he wasn't being serious. "What's this for?" What had happened a year ago?

Tao turned to him, his eyes wide. "So you _don't_ remember!"

Ggk. Shit. He was supposed to know?

"It's been a year since we were adopted into the house!" Tao dragged him into a hug despite his protests, bringing in Seira as well.

Oh.

…_Oh_. M-21's eyes went wide as Tao's words sank in. Had it really been a year since he'd first came here?

"Well, close enough," Tao said, lunging for Regis next, who yelped, enveloping Takeo at the same time. Tao scruffled Regis' hair for a second after the hug. "Boss said he adopted '21 last week, and we were-" He gestured to himself and Takeo. "-next week, so I took the average between them." He beamed at them.

The front door opened as Tao hugged Rai and Frankenstein was smiling when he entered, not looking at the confetti on the floor.

"Boss!" Frankenstein returned Tao's tackling hug, patting him on the back.

"Come on," Tao said, lifting his head to look back at the rest of them. "Group hug."

No-one complained this time as they went over and there was a lightness in M-21's chest as he wrapped his arms around people, not checking who it was, just knowing they were there.

A year. He'd been here a year. It felt both like he hadn't been here for that long, and for far longer. He hadn't stayed anywhere for close to this long.

"Okay, then," Tao said, throwing his hand up, pointing to the ceiling. "Time to _party!_"

Silence.

…Really. Tao wanted them to 'party'. He knew what they were like and what they preferred.

Tao snickered, waving a hand. "Nah – I've got movies set up; we'll be eating snack food and marathoning stuff."

That sounded better.

"So everyone grab a seat and I'll start up the popcorn." Tao scampered off and the rest of them walked towards the sofa.

xOx

Tao had fallen asleep while watching the movie, his head resting on M-21's shoulder, his arm around Takeo.

M-21 tilted Tao's head back a bit, making sure he wouldn't tumble forward and wake up. He shouldn't, not with the way he'd anchored himself on both of them, but just in case.

"We'll watch until the end of the movie," Frankenstein murmured, lowering the volume, "and then go to bed."

"I'll clean up," Regis said, and M-21 snorted, raising an eyebrow at him.

"You've got school tomorrow."

"It won't take me that long," Regis insisted, frowning, "and-"

"Your bickering will wake him up," Takeo said. "I'll take him to bed and we'll all clean up."

"…Fine," M-21 said, settling down to watch the rest of the movie.

Next year (and that was a strange thought to have), they needed to make sure they surprised _Tao_ with something.

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><p>Wasn't sure about Rael's status, but for the moment, he's not included in the household and is living with Rajak in Lukedonia.<p>

Aga wanted family feels and fluff. :3

Realised while writing if it's been a year, the kids and Regis and Seira wouldn't be in school anymore BUT ANYWAY.


End file.
